The European "Vitis" Database (www.eu-vitis.de)- a technical innovation through an online uploading and interactive modification system

The objective of the European Vitis Database is to safeguard and enhance germplasm by monitoring its preservation. Two issues are strongly related to that purpose: (1) participation of collections covering almost all grape biodiversity and (2) assessment of accessions trueness to type. In the scope of the European project GrapeGen06 efforts have been made towards both objectives. The 35 participating grape germplasm repositories are found between the Iberian Peninsula and Transcaucasia, thus covering a broad range of grape diversity. Altogether they maintain 32,410 accessions. However with respect to biodiversity, gaps are still evident and further collections need to be included and trueness to type assessment absolutely needs to be pursued to organize duplication of endangered genotypes. Within the GrapeGen06 project focus was laid on the establishment of a database conferring the collection holders a high degree of responsibility and independence. Hence for the first time in a European Central Crop Database an on-line uploading application and an interactive modification system for data administration was implemented. These innovations disburden the database manager and offer the curators of collections more flexibility. Prerequisites for data import, descriptors applied, access levels, database contents, uploading, export and search functions are described.